Hello, I have finally changed Capita’s mind. They had no choice as I refused to put my health at risk in this heat. I now have a home assessment instead of a venue based assessment. I am collating a list of things I need to know. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi open minded, I’m glad you’ve got your home assessment but be very careful. I lost all my DLA after my home assessment, by a private company who pay bonuses (check out the Panorama secret filming) for everyone they ‘knock off’ the governments list. Appealed immediately and got it all back within 6 weeks, but lost the mobility car in Feb after 19 years with one. Have to go to a tribunal to get it back, it takes 6-8 months to hear your case in court, MP has written in the hope of moving things along because if I have to wait till Oct for a nay or yeah, it takes 3 months to order my specially adapted car, and my electric wheelchair (courtesy of the NHS)won’t go in the snow so I won’t even be able to go to the coop for a loaf and a pint of milk. Mr council has just installed me a through lift and a huge ramp and new low lovel front door so I can drive straight into the house I have lived in for 41 years but they think I’m insufficiently disabled to warrant a disability car, work thar one out! You have to play their game, You cannot open a tin, you cannot hold a kettle, you cannot write a phone message down, you cannot pull up your own draws, you cannot plan a journey CAN YOU! Take your very worst day, lay it on thick, cry, be absent minded, they rather like doing home assessments because you will get up and go to the loo without thinking about it because you are more comfortable in your own. Make sure you have got all your evidence, letters from GP, Consultant, MS nurse , get your MP involved right from the beginning, make sure you have got somebody with you, don’t be too confident, mishear questions etc., you get my drift, they are on a mission to try and reduce your payments, don’t give them a chink to drive the wedge through. Some people have had great experiences and have even ended up better off because they have received higher levels of PIP, but these are very few and far batten and as we both live in the midlands I suspect you will be assessed by Capita who I understand are the worst, and have cost the government more in appeals and Tribunals than they have saved Mr government in the first place! Good Luck😍

Thank you for your help. I will try and lay it down quite thick. You are correct Capita will be doing my home assessment. I have been waiting letters from GP, MS Nurse for a while, but my neurologist was quite quick. I had to get my MP involved to get Capita to give me a home assessment. Everything else is quite evident. This will be my 2nd PIP home assessment. I was successful with the 1st. Just!

Hello all, As promised I can tell you all that I can draw a line under my PIP reassessment woes. I first received my first reassessment form on 8 February 2018. After waiting for over 8 months I now know that the DWP will extend my PIP for another 3 years. The process took me 8 months from start to finish, this was too long a wait. I had my home assessment in July and having to wait 3 months for a decision is also far too long. Am I alone or is this normal practice for the DWP? Regards Anthony

@openminded you are never alone the whole PIP, ESA, assessment is WRONG , everyone including the DWP, should watch the film called, I AM DANIEL BLAKE, i’m just going through the whole process again, so more stress, more worry,more being put on hold for 20min when trying to talk to DWP, no doubt I will be refused and end up back in court again, I won the first APPEAL in 2015 so know to some degree what to expect. The DWP plan on people not appealing, so my advice to everyone is APPEAL, APPEAL and continue to APPEAL.

Just giving you all the latest news. The 8 mths were up on 5th Oct. I got in touch with the tribunal service on 3rd Oct. They informed me that I would not get a hearing until at least the new year despite my mp getting involved. I have a copy of their letter to him. Apparently I’m not important enough to warrant an earlier hearing. I have spoken to my ms nurse, who has a neurologist home on standby if it snows because neither my electric wheelchair or mobility scooter work in the snow. Cost of home is £3000 per week. Cost to NHS/Government approximately £30k, tribunal cost £20k total £50k. I was never very good at maths at school, but arithmetic I can do, and even a thickie like me can work out which is cheaper, £2500 per year for a mobility car or £50k for a neorological home and a tribunal😫

Thank you all for your responses. It is nice to know I have somewhere to go and talk. You are all wonderful. This 3 year assessment for a incurable condition like MS is utterly bonkers. I still have not recovered from all the stress caused by Capita. I am now stuck with the decision to either find somewhere new to live or try and stay where I am and keep my stress levels down. Stress is my no2 enemy, MS is the first.

Hello grandma, I am now considering moving is because I live in a house with two smokers, who refuse to smoke outside. I live in a terraced house which I am finding harder to move around. For 3 days I am trapped in a back bedroom due to the smoke. The only thing stopping me looking for a new place to live was my PIP. Now that has been sorted I can now start looking. Sorry for the confusion.

I can well understand your problems and I smoke myself! I’m a landlady, both tenenants are smokers, one regularly and one very occasionally. I only allow smoking under the extractor fan in the kitchen if it’s too wet to go out the patio doors. Have found cigarette ends on the flat roof outside the regular smokers window. She denies all knowledge of them (she’s a nurse by the way) but as Ive never ‘caught’ her I can’t prove anything. I own the house and even though I smoke myself occasionally I don’t want my whole house smelling of smoke! I live in Stoke, not too far away, and I let both my rooms through Spare Room, can thoroughly recommend them and they will find you a non- smoking home with ease. Good Luck.

Join Shift.ms to reply to this post.

Become part of the community so you can chat, compare and learn from other MSers.